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A cursory look at images of bodies in medieval art highlights the xenophobic attitude of the period. While most biblical characters, including Jesus and Mary, were historically Middle-Eastern and Jewish, they are never (or extremely rarely) portrayed as such in Europe. Rather, racial visibility is used in medieval imagery as a caricature of evil. Dark skin, hooked noses, pointy hats, thick lips function as racist ethical signifiers.
Even though medieval Europe was racially diverse, the white population was by far a majority. Bodies of people that were not white (North-African Christians and Muslims, Sephardic/Ashkenazi Jews, Roma, Turkish and Mongol people, etc) were therefore hypervisible. This hypervisibility was promoted visual representations casually mocking non-white physiognomy.
Four races of man Column capital (Italy, 1230) New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Caricatures of different ethnicity (complicated by intersections with religion) are easily recognizable by their offensive character. Even when skin tone was not explicit, like in this miniature, one can identify an African-coded (by his upturned nose, thick lips and prominent brow) and a Jewishcoded (by his hooked nose and pointy chin) torturers.
Jewish and African torturer caricatures Holkham Bible, Picture Book (England, 1320-30) British Library, Add MS 47682, f.31r
Jews were specifically targeted in ethnic purity laws, functioned as scapegoats for natural and social disasters (the plague, murders) and expelled from entire geographical regions. Jews were made visible by distinguishing clothing mandated by local or universal legislation, like the Lateran Council of 1215 making Jews wear pointy hats outside of the ghetto.
Jews in Hellmouth Moralized Bible (France, 1227-1234) Morgan Museum, MS M.240 f.4r
Racial visibility – either through physical features, skin tone or clothing – also functioned in medieval European art as signifiers of religious diversity. Heretics (like in the cover image), Jews and Muslims were not Christian, therefore enemies of Christ. This was concretised in images where the torturers in Christ’s passion are caricatures of Jews or African Muslims.
Torturers of Christ Psalter (Flanders, c.1325) Oxford Bodleian, MS. Douce 5, f.145v
Biblical violence of all sorts was visualised in medieval visual culture as the effect of religious and racial ‘other’. Even when the victims of violence were Jewish (like all the characters in the Old and most of the New Testament), the perpetrators are differentiated ethnically (by skin tone, caricature physiognomy or dress) while the victims look virtually white.
Massacre of innocents Images de la vie du Christ et des saints (Belgium, 1285-1290) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, NAF 16251, f.24v
The association between darker skin and immorality or defective character influenced even the way resurrected souls were imagined. The whiter one’s soul would appear, the more virtuous the person it belonged to. This in turn created a practical hierarchy in which people with fairer complexion were inherently better than the ones with darker skin.
Good and bad souls Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur (France c. 1450-1470) Oxford Bodleian, Douce 134 f.52v
Medieval images of Jews and Muslims appeared not only in the context of violence against Christians, but also as figures of corruption and lack. Caricatures of racial others figured as savages, heretics, robbers, drunkards, madmen, sodomites, even the devil. This cultural legacy of medieval xenophobia and racism is still visible in modern European thought.
Grave robbers Taymouth Hours (England, C1340) British Library, Yates Thompson MS 13, f.109r
A lot of the places we find images of racial bodies treat these characters as tokens. Other real persons (like St Nicholas, Augustine of Hippo, even Christ as a Jew) had their ethnicity erased from their bodies. In a biting act of whitewashing, the most prominent medieval black saint, St Maurice, is depicted as white killed by black warriors.
St Maurice, whitewashed BrĂŠviaire de Charles V (France, 1340-1380) Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Latin 1052, f513r
If you want to know more: Pocket Miscellanies #7: People of Colour Cutler (1986) The Jew as Ally of the Muslim: Medieval Roots of AntiSemitism Nirenberg (1996) Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages Goldenberg (1999) The Development of the Idea of Race: Classical Paradigms and Medieval Elaborations, International Journal of the Classical Tradition COVER: ‘Heretici’ James le Palmer, Omne Bonum (England, c.1375) British Library, Royal 6 E Vii, f.200r
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